Why LinkedIn “Skills” Are Useless – and What LinkedIn Can Do About It
LinkedIn makes it very easy to add new skills to your professional profile – and this is what makes this section of the site irrelevant.
As of today, I have 11 skills for which colleagues have endorsed me. By clicking “Add to Profile,” these words will quickly appear on my profile and position me as an expert in Facebook, WordPress, Teaching, Research and more.
Facebook? Yes, I’m a pro. WordPress? Yes, I’m very good at that too. Teaching? Well, I’ve run some good workshops and I enjoy mentoring, but I dislike most forms of “teaching” and wouldn’t use that word to describe my skills. Research? Hmm, I like to learn and I Google a heck of a lot of stuff every day. Does that make me skilled at research?